World's Finest
by CommissionerGordon
Summary: The first meeting between our greatest heroes. Must read I Blame the Coffe by Maveness first!!
1. Beginning

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I should be proud. I have every right to be. I was the first African-American to be appointed to this company's board of directors. I am the only black CEO this company has had-one of only a handful in the U.S. and the only one to run a Fortune Global 500 company. I have a corner office on the 75th floor, an eight-foot mahogany desk (a gift from the NAACP and presented to me by the Rev. Jesse Jackson)—

"Mr. Fox your 11 o'clock is here."

__

— my own secretary. So why am I not satisfied? It's not the name. At least that's what I tell myself. Just because my name isn't on the logo doesn't mean that it's not my company. But I still stand here looking north, out the window towards Robinson Park and see the cars at a standstill on the streets below, and I find myself just as jealous of them as they are of me. Which, to me, means only one thing: I've forgotten why I do this job.

Hamilton opened the heavy oak door to the CEO's office and saw a man many regarded as a pit bull facing the window with his shoulders hunched. 

"Quite an impressive view, Mr. Fox."

"One of the perks of being CEO, Dr. Hamilton. Have a seat. I assume you're here to give me your report?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well do you think I could see it?"

"Sorry, sir. Of course."

He handed the thick sheaf of papers across the desk. Fox skimmed over the first few pages of the report. It read like a cross between a physics and chemistry textbook. Fox sees Hamilton's potential, and is disappointed in what he's become. Once a prominent black researcher and educator, he was now being blackmailed by Luthorcorp because of a careless fling with a student. His own indiscretion forced him to move to the middle of nowhere and hock fake meteor rocks so he could support himself while he studied the real ones. Now Hamilton had the audacity to doublecross Lionel Luthor, and bring this information to Luthorcorp's prime competition. 

"This is impressive, but it may as well be written in Greek. Care to give a brief synopsis?"

"Yes sir. From what I can determine the samples are the salt of an oxyacid of-"

"English, Dr. Hamilton. Not Greek. " 

Fox was a career businessman and had little patience for scientists impressed by their own techno-babble.

"Very sorry, Mr. Fox. The samples are composed of various metals such as iron, copper and tin fused with a chemically combined structure of hydrogen, oxygen and a radioactive form of krypton gas. There are, however, several problems with this composition. First the concentration of krypton in these samples is impossibly high. One gram of this stuff has more krypton than all the air in this building. Also, this krypton has a molecular weight that's never before been observed in nature. Then there's the composition itself. These gasses would never naturally combine with these metals."

"Are you saying these rocks are manmade?"

"Well, Mr. Fox, yes and no. The krypton could possibly be the byproduct of a fission reaction, but it's highly unlikely. I've also determined that these elements were combined by nuclear fusion, which makes them definitely not manmade."

"Hamilton, if they aren't manmade and they don't occur naturally then how'd they come to exist?"

"My best guess—the collapse of a star. It's the only feasible explanation for nuclear fusion of the scale required to manufacture these rocks reaching solid matter."

"You're saying that some distant star collapsed and in the process destroyed a planet and created these rock samples? Forgive my skepticism Doctor, but even comic books aren't this far-fetched."

"I understand, sir. I do have other evidence to support my theory. The meteors also contained rock very similar to the Earth's crust. In these samples I found the strongest evidence to support my theory—microfossils. Sir, I can say definitively that these meteors were the remnants of a planet—one that held at least the basic forms of life."

"This is just the kind of proof those Roswell nuts have been looking for."

"Exactly, sir. There is another property exhibited by the samples. As I said, the krypton is radioactive. However, the radiation emitted by the samples is apparently harmless to humans. I can't be sure but I believe our immunity is linked to the sun's UV rays. Now, there have been some reports of strange occurrences linked to the meteors, but I believe these people were bombarded with massive amounts of the radiation. If I'm correct, these samples could conceivably be used as a safe alternative to uranium."

"Doctor, I appreciate your suggestion, but the potential use of such a substance is not our primary concern."

"Dr. Hamilton, how confident are you in your results?" Hamilton snapped his head around to see the owner of this new voice. Out of the corner stepped a man who appeared to Hamilton to be six feet tall, around 200 pounds, and no older than twenty. He took a seat next to the doctor. The doctor stammered for a moment, but he eventually got his answer out. "Ninety percent, sir." 

Hamilton couldn't tell if he was more startled by the fact that this man had been behind him watching the entire meeting or if it was just the man. 

"Did Lionel Luthor ever mention why he was so interested in this stuff?" 

"I never spoke to Lionel Luthor, sir. It was Lex who put me up to this. And no, he never mentioned why. Apparently, someone else had told him of my work with the meteor rocks. He came to my shop one day and offered me money in return for any information I could give him about the rocks."

"So you've told someone else about the rocks?"

"Well, there was a girl poking around a few times. She was trying to do an article for her high school newspaper."

"Did this newspaper girl have a name?" 

"Chloe Sullivan, sir."

"Alright, this information goes no further. Dr. Hamilton, you've done the right thing by coming to us. When the time is right, you will receive a position at S.T.A.R. Labs as promised. In the meantime you are to return to Smallville. Luthor cannot know this information nor can we allow him to suspect anything is amiss. Lucius, talk to our new district attorney. Luthorcorp is rumored to have had dealings with organized crime. Perhaps Mr. Dent can shake down a few informants and get us something." 

"What are you going to do?" 

"I'm going to pay a visit to Smallville. Now, if that's all you have for us Doctor, you should go. Get back home as quickly as possible."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, gentlemen." 

Hamilton left the room and the two executives continued their conversation. 

"This guy has obviously done his homework. It appears as though he's been studying these rocks almost since they got here," the voice said.

"He comes across as an obsessed lunatic. Did you know he's even named this stuff? He's calling it Kryptonite."

"There's nothing wrong with obsession, Lucius. Don't knock it 'till you try it."

"I just remembered something," Fox said and grinned.

"What's that?"

"Why I do this job."


	2. Welcome to Smallville

"Remind me again why you are going?"

"Because, Alfred, Lex Luthor is up to something. What, I don't know, but I intend to find out. He could be honestly interested in these meteor rocks or this could be an elaborate ploy by Luthorcorp to try and take over Wayne Industries."

"I doubt they would be quite so bold, Master Bruce. Besides, they've already tried. Lionel Luthor made an attempt shortly after the death of your parents. Fortunately, your father had the foresight to leave the company in Mr. Fox's hands. Luthor didn't get very far with Mr. Fox and he hasn't tried since."

"I still worry, Alfred. I refuse to go down in history as the man who lost Wayne Industries."

Alfred Pennyworth sighed. He was fighting a losing battle and he knew it. He would never win this argument. Bruce would not be moved from his opinion. He had committed himself to honoring the memory of his parents. If going to the middle of nowhere did that for him, if it held his inner demons at bay, then so be it. Let him go.

"Will you be taking the jet, Master Bruce?"

"Alfred, you know I hate heights. I'll take the Jag."

Bruce climbed into his favorite car, put the top down and the pedal to the floor. As he drove, his mind kept going back to the meeting with Dr. Hamilton. Were Hamilton's results accurate? His theories were certainly "out there", but the evidence seemed to be in his favor. And why was Lex so interested in this stuff? Did he already have Hamilton's results? Was this all a setup? Lionel Luthor had built a sketchy reputation after some particularly nasty hostile takeovers, but Lex was an unknown. As the miles ticked away on the Jag's odometer and Smallville drew nearer, Bruce continued to mull it over, but couldn't find any plausible explanation for Lex's motivation. Bruce arrived well past midnight and, after deciding against a surprise visit to the Luthorcorp plant, checked in to his hotel-the only hotel in town. Now he knew why the town was called Smallville. No sooner had he closed the door to his room, his phone rang. 

"Whoever you are, I just drove a thousand miles and I'm tired. This had better be good."

"Bruce, it's Lucius. Listen, Dr. Hamilton called after you left and mentioned one other thing about these meteor rocks. Apparently some of them have contained chunks of titanium."

"Okay.... Hamilton said some of the rocks were similar to Earth's crust, and how do we know the meteors didn't pick the titanium up on impact? I mean, Lucius, there's titanium everywhere."

"Not like this, Bruce. This titanium was milled. It also shows signs of being exposed to the same cosmic radiation as all the other samples."

Silence.

"This just keeps getting better and better. Lucius, get Hamilton on the first plane back to Gotham. At this point I don't care what Luthor suspects. We cannot let him get this information."

"Alright. If I hear anything more, I'll let you know. And, Bruce..."

"Yeah, Lucius?"

"Watch your back."

Bruce hung up the phone and lay down on the bed. Sleep would not come easy, but for Bruce Wayne it never did. It was the same every night. He prayed every day for a restful night's sleep. Countless doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, and even a shaman had tried to cure him of his nightmares. Nothing they did had any effect. It wasn't multiple nightmares that kept him awake each night. Just one. Each time he could smell the gunpowder. His ears would ring. His hands were covered in something warm and sticky. And red. There was red everywhere. 

He woke the following day shortly after noon. Still not wanting to directly confront Luthor, Bruce drove to the outskirts of town. The irony that he had traveled the world but had never seen the heartland of his own country was not lost on him. Fields of wheat and corn taller than him stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Bruce remembered a comment from Hamilton's report about the bumper crops that Lowell County had experienced for the last decade. Could that be another effect of Hamilton's "kryptonite"? It was a possibility. It could also explain why Lex was so interested in the meteor rocks. 

Bruce drove back into town and stopped at a coffeehouse he had passed earlier. The Beanery. Whoever had named this town had really crippled it. They couldn't even get a Starbucks. Bruce ordered a black coffee and took a seat at the back of the store. 

Just as he picked up a copy of the Planet, he noticed a couple directly across from him. A blonde and an all-American farm boy. He watched Blondie slip out of the booth just to sit back down again on Farm Boy's side. They seemed to be on the verge of serious PDA until another guy came to the booth. Blondie and Farm Boy both beat a hasty exit. Both looked flushed from embarrassment. The new guy was left to sit by himself; his only company a shredded napkin and a mangled spoon that he examined and put in his pocket.

"Buddy, you have got some God-awful timing."

"Not really. It was better off this way. I think.... Hey aren't you..."

"Bruce Wayne. And you are...?"

"Pete Ross. So, tell me. Why has the boy-billionaire population of Smallville suddenly doubled?"

"Uh, well... WayneTech is very interested in the crops here in Lowell County. We'd like to find out why things around here seem to grow so well."

"Uh-huh. If I ask you again, will you feed me the same line or will you actually tell me the truth this time?"

"No and no. You know I was watching your friends. Does that guy have a thing against spoons?"

"Not that I know of. Although he has been acting really different lately."

"Can I take a look at it?"

Bruce took the spoon from Pete and looked at it. It had been twisted into a corkscrew, but only after it had been folded in half...lengthwise.


	3. Confrontation

"Chloe's gonna flip when I tell her I met Bruce Wayne."

"Who? Did you say Chloe?"

"Yeah. Chloe. That blonde girl. Set new standards in evil eye as she walked out. That was Chloe."

"What's the matter Wayne? Can't you hear?"

Bruce's flesh went cold. The one person he, until this point, had successfully avoided was standing right behind him. Lucius had warned him to watch his back….

"Lex. It's been a long time."

"Oh, what's wrong, Bruce? You don't sound excited to see me."

"Your father eulogized my parents and then tried to take over my father's company less than 2 months later. Forgive me, but I couldn't be less excited to see you."

"I'm not my father, Bruce."

"No, you're not, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Now, if there's nothing else I can help you with, I'd like to continue my conversation with Pete here … alone."

"That's fine. Just remember Bruce; this isn't Gotham City. You're not in your protective little cocoon here. What you say and do here could have dire consequences…."

Bruce watched out the window intently as Lex got into his sleek Porsche and sped out of sight. He was so angry he was shaking. He had expected his eventual encounter with Lex to be tense but it had been far worse. He was even angrier with himself for not even noticing Lex Luthor was sitting just ten feet away the entire time.

"What was that all about?"

"Let's just say Wayne Enterprises and Luthorcorp don't have the best business relationship."

"He was right, though. He's not his father."

Bruce narrowed his eyes, clenched his jaw and gave Pete a look so cold it made him take a step back. Chloe had given him a bad look, but nothing compared to this.

"Whose side are you on, Pete?"

"Uh…I don't take sides. I'm neutral, man. Just like Switzerland."

"Uh-huh. Whatever. Where can I find Chloe?"

"She has journalism last hour. You can find her at the Torch office at school then."

"Thank you. And Pete,"

"Yeah?"

"You can forget about telling Chloe, because this conversation never happened. You can forget about the spoon too."

"What spoon?"


	4. Weird

"You need to tell him."

Pete had been trying all day to track Chloe down and had finally cornered her in the Torch office. He knew he needed to make amends and explain himself, but it wasn't going very well.

"I don't have to tell him anything, and you better not go running your mouth to him either, mister."

"Chloe, you know Clark. As smart as he is, he still sometimes can't see what's right in front of him. If you're waiting for him to wake up and realize what's been going on between you two, you're wasting your time. He won't know how you feel unless you tell him."

"Pete, he sort of let Lana, the love of his pubescent life, go because he valued their friendship more. He was right. I would hate for things to get weird with Clark, cause I know it would wreck our friendship."

"That's a risk you take, Chloe. If you don't take it, you'll wonder for a long time what might have been. Seriously-"

Pete heard the door open and instantly hushed up for fear that Clark may be coming through it. Weird wouldn't have described the situation had Clark walked in on their conversation. Pete and Chloe started to breathe a collective sigh of relief when they saw it wasn't Clark, but both became nervous all over again when they realized who their guest was.

"Sorry to interrupt. I'm looking for Chloe Sullivan."

Bruce gave Pete a sidelong glance. It was all the hint Pete needed. He grabbed his backpack, mumbled something about seeing Chloe later and left as quickly as he could. 

"I'm Chloe. What can I do for you?"

"I assume you know who I am?"

"Oh, sure. You're the Easter Bunny. No, no, wait! I've got it! You're the Tooth Fairy! No, that's wrong too. Santa Claus maybe?"

"Ha-ha. Very Funny. Do you think you could possibly be serious for just a minute? I came to ask you about the meteor rocks. I hear you take them pretty seriously."

"Yeah, but why, of all people, are you here asking me about the meteor rocks? No one believes my theories."

"Don't worry about why I'm here. Just tell me what you think about the meteor rocks."

"Okay…. Basically, Smallville is the capital of weird. Most people think it has something to do with possible pollution by the Luthorcorp Plant. I, however think the meteor rocks are to blame."

"What makes you think that?"

"Let me show you…."

Chloe took Bruce a back corner of the Torch office and showed him her "Wall of Weird". He looked at the countless articles tacked up on the wall with a sense of amazement. He saw pictures of the town water tower exploding, people covered in soot, and emergency vehicles. There was a cover from Time featuring a young girl in tears. There were many more articles about the strange happenings in and around Smallville. Some were from the Daily Planet, others from the local paper, and some even written by Chloe herself. For Bruce, to see this kind of dedication from a career scientist was expected. But a high school freshman? That was unexpected. And impressive. 

"God. I had no idea. This town is a cross between the Twilight Zone and X-Files."

"Yeah, except no approves of my theory, and even if the truth really is out there, I have a feeling the good citizens of Smallville won't want to listen."

"Um, your friend—the one who was with you yesterday at the coffee house…"

"Oh, God! You saw that?"

"Don't worry about me. Worry about Lex Luthor. He was there watching, too."

"Great. Excuse me while I die from embarrassment."

"Right. You think maybe before that you could tell me how to get in touch with your friend?"

"Why do you want to talk to Clark?"

"Seeing your wall reminded me of a question I'd like to ask him…."


	5. Realization

Sherlock Holmes. The Grey Ghost. Both had been called "The World's Greatest Detective", and Bruce had grown up idolizing both. Now he was jealous of them. 

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They would have had the mystery that is Smallville wrapped up long ago, and here I am still struggling with it. Every teacher, every lesson focused on the principle that my mind is my greatest weapon. What they don't tell you is that it'll still misfire on occasion. No! That's the wrong way to think. Focus, Bruce. Review the evidence. There's the meteor rocks. I still don't know why Luthor is so interested in them. Chloe has her wall of weird with all the unexplained events in Smallville. Then there's Clark. After seeing what he did to that spoon, I'd say he's a candidate for Chloe's wall. I wonder if Lex saw that spoon. Wait… Lex was there the entire time… **watching Chloe and Clark**. He may not know everything that I do, but he was watching those two for a reason. That's it. Clark is the key to this. Has to be. I need to know more about this kid.

Bruce called Lucius and asked him for any information he could get on Clark. Medical records, birth records—nothing would be deemed too insignificant. Bruce had planed on killing time by looking around the town again while he waited for Lucius to call back. He never even made out of his hotel room. Less than an hour after he had called Lucius, his phone rang.

"What do you have for me, Lucius?"

"Bruce are you sure you got this kid's name right?"

"Yeah. It's Clark Kent…. Why?"

"Because we couldn't find anything. He has no birth record. I mean, he has a birth certificate but it wasn't created until after he had been adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent."

"He was adopted?"

"Yeah. That's not all. He apparently hasn't been to see a doctor in the last twelve years."

"So he's healthy and he's lucky. So am I."

"Yeah, Bruce, but you did get sick as a kid, just like all kids. Colds, flu, chicken pox, broken bones. Most kids get some combination of these things. He hasn't. It's not just that. Both his hearing and his vision are perfect. Something's not right here Bruce. He hasn't been to a doctor since the Kents took him shortly after they found him…"

"What? Did you say they **found** him?"

"Yeah. Apparently he had been abandoned. That's what I'm talking about, Bruce. This is too fishy. I mean, who abandons a toddler?"

"Lucius, when did they find him?"

"According to the police report they filed, it was right after the meteor shower. Why?"

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The Wall of Weird. Lex's suspicion. The spoon. The kryptonite. The chunks of **milled **titanium.

"Oh my God…."


	6. Secrets

"Bruce, what's wrong? What is it?"

"This little mystery isn't so little anymore. We know that the meteor fragments were the remnants of a planet, one that held at least some life. Hamilton said as much, right?"

"Yeah, that's what he said, but we still haven't totally verified his findings."

"Well, just go with me here, Lucius. Okay, so we know there was at least some life on this planet. Now add the titanium—the milled titanium. That to me suggests not just life but intelligent life. Life with a level of intelligence at least equal if not superior to our own. Then take into consideration the fact that the Kents found the kid in the midst of the meteor shower."

"What does the kid have to do with this?"

"Think about it Lucius. What one industry uses more titanium than any other does? Actually, never mind that. What one object uses more titanium than any other?"

"I'm not in the mood for trivia, Bruce. Just tell me."

"The aerospace industry uses the most titanium, Lucius. And the one object that uses the most? The space shuttle. That's how the kid fits into this."

"Let me get this straight. You're suggesting that the titanium was part of a spacecraft, and that the kid was in it? That would make him an alien! You know, Bruce, if you weren't acting so serious right now, I'd be laughing at what you just said. You can't really believe all this."

"Well, no. At least, not a hundred percent anyway. But after all I've seen in this town, I'm not going to dismiss it either. Alien or not I need to talk to this kid. Before I do, I need to take a trip to Metropolis."

"What do you need in Metropolis?"

"Well, Hamilton said that all the meteor fragments had been exposed to some cosmic radiation. If the kid was in space, he would have been exposed to some of it too. I'll get a Geiger counter at S.T.A.R. and see if he shows signs of exposure. "

"How do you plan on testing this kid for radiation exposure? If he's really an alien, he and his parents have kept it a secret for a long time, and I don't think they'd just give that secret up."

"Don't worry about it Lucius. I'll find a way."

Bruce drove up the lane to the Kent farm early the next afternoon. He had already come earlier, in the wee hours of the morning under cover of darkness to see if he could find anything out of the ordinary. After spending an hour looking and finding no evidence of strange weather balloons or alien autopsies he decided to go back to his hotel. As he walked through the barn to leave, he nearly tripped on a divot in the floor. He reached down, swept away the hay and saw a handle. Not wanting to leave obvious signs of his presence, he left the trapdoor closed. He instead pulled out the Geiger counter. The tech that had lent him the equipment had given Bruce only a cursory demonstration of how the counter worked. As Bruce set the counter on the trapdoor, he watched the needle bounce all over the gauge, and thought the tech had either been wrong or the Kents were storing nuclear waste in their storm cellar. Something was definitely down there. 

As he got out of his car, he saw Clark walking towards him.

"My parents aren't here."

"Uh, okay…. Good for them. I wanted to ask you a question…."

"Did you not hear me? I said my parents aren't here. Even if they were, they wouldn't sell the farm to you."

"Who said anything about buying your farm?"

"Lex told me all about you. He said that you were going to try and buy our farm. He also said that if my parents don't sell, you'd buy the note from the bank and foreclose on us."

"Do you have a hearing problem, pal? I just said I'm not interested in your dinky little farm! I just came by because I wanted to get your opinion on the meteor rocks."

"I'm not interested in what you want. Please get back in your car and go. Now."

"Jeez, man. Can I at least ask you one question?"

"What is it?"

"You know that coffee shop in town?"

"You mean the Beanery? What about it?"

"Do you go there often?"

"Well, Chloe goes a lot to get her cappuccino fix, and I usually go with her. Why?"

"Well, I was just going to say that if you go there often, you might want to stop doing this…."

Clark watched as Bruce reached in his pocket and tossed something metallic at him. Clark caught it against his chest and realized what it was. A look of horror spread across his face. Anyone looking at him would have thought he had just caught a live grenade. It wasn't a grenade. Just a spoon.

"You've got secrets Kent…."


	7. The Truth

"What do you want from me?"

"The truth, Kent. What you did to that spoon isn't normal. Who—or should I say what are you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just an average farm kid who got embarrassed and upset and took out on a stupid coffee spoon."

"My ass you're average. Unless that coffee shop has a bench vise at each table and I just missed them, you bent that spoon with your bare hands. No average human being could've done something like that. That had to take superhuman strength. Your spoon proves there is more to you than meets the eye."

"This spoon means nothing. It proves nothing."

"No. You know what? You're right. By itself, that spoon proves nothing. But how 'bout this? Your parents found you in the middle of a meteor shower. Half of Smallville had just been destroyed, and your parents' truck had just been overturned with them in it. Yet there you were, a toddler, walking around unscathed. Your adoption has holes in it big enough to drive a truck through. You've seen a doctor once in the last twelve years. Chloe has her wall at the Torch, which you happen to be on more than once. There's the meteor rocks, too. Did you know some of the show signs of life? Life—intelligent life—existed wherever these rocks came from. Wherever you came from."

"You're nuts. You've taken a bunch of circumstantial evidence, tied it together and come up with a ridiculous conclusion. Take my advice, Mr. Wayne: seek professional help."

"I just might take you up on that. But not yet. We're not done. Do you know what happens to an object as it travels through space? Without an atmosphere to protect it, the object gets bombarded with radiation."

"Well, thanks for the science lesson, Mr. Wizard, but what's your point?"

"My point is that whatever is in your storm cellar is putting off tremendous amounts of radiation. The same kind of radiation that the meteor rocks were exposed to."

"You need to leave. Now. And don't come back. If we catch you trespassing again, we'll call the sheriff."

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what's going on here. What's so terrible that you fell the need to hide it from everyone?"

"I'm going inside now. If you're still here by the time I get inside, I'm calling the police."

"What is your problem?! Have you even stopped to consider why I'm here? I'm trying to help you, Clark! I'm trying to find out what I can about you because Lex Luthor was."

"What…?"

"Yeah. The man you know as Steven Hamilton is actually Dr. Emil Hamilton. He got into some trouble about fifteen years ago, moved to Smallville and started using his middle name. After the meteor shower, he started seeing all the weird stuff that was happening and decided to investigate the meteor rocks. He was the one who discovered the signs of life. He's also named the rocks. He's calling it 'Kryptonite'. Anyway, Lex caught wind of him and blackmailed him. He told Hamilton that he'd keep his secret in exchange for any information about the kryptonite. For whatever reason, Hamilton got spooked, came to me and told me what had happened. And now here I am. Now do you see that I'm trying to help you?"

"I don't know…."

"Clark, look. I don't know what Lex's intentions are, but I can assure you they are far from honorable."

"You're right…." 

"You better believe I'm right. I've seen what the Luthor's are capable of."

"No, Bruce. Not about that. About me. I'm…well, I…uh…."

"You're not human."

"No. I'm not."

"What about the thing in the storm cellar?"

"I guess it's sort of an escape pod. I'm not real sure. Whatever it is, it brought me here. Man, you have no idea how scary this is. I've dreaded this day all my life."

"Why? It was bound to happen sometime. Besides, you'd go nuts if you kept this bottled up inside."

"I was just afraid that as soon as I told someone, they'd put two and two together and see all the problems I've caused."

"Problems? What are you talking about?"

"I came with the meteors. The same meteors that nearly leveled Smallville and killed so many people. One of my friends lost her parents in the meteor shower and Lex was permanently scarred. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible."

"Responsible? Are you kidding? You had nothing to do with the meteor shower and you couldn't have stopped if you had tried. No. You want to talk responsibility? I watched my parents get killed when I was six. Not because of some freak accident, but because some junkie wanted the strand of pearls my mother was wearing. Pearls I asked her to wear. I found out years later that they weren't even real. You know the worst part? We shouldn't have even been walking down that alley. I wanted ice cream and my parents decided to appease me. They paid for that decision with their lives. I live with every day. No. What you feel isn't guilt it's self-pity. Grow up, Kent."

"What do you know…Bruce?"

Bruce didn't answer. He had already turned away and was walking towards his car. Despite all his super abilities, Clark felt powerless. He had trusted his secret, his safety, and his entire life to this man. A man he hardly knew. Bruce had seemed genuinely interested in helping him, but at the same time he had seemed very dark. He had seen the same dichotomy in Lex, but Lex hid it much better. Clark's main concern was whether or not he had made the right decision. Could Bruce Wayne be trusted? Clark would agonize over his decision for years to come. He watched as Bruce backed his Jag down the lane spewing gravel from the tires the entire way and narrowly missing his parents as they pulled in. He approached the truck as it came to a stop.

"Clark, who was that?"

"Bruce Wayne."

"What was he doing here?"

"Asking some questions about the meteor rocks…and about me."

"What did you tell him?"

"The truth…that I'm not human."

"Son, what would possess you to do that?! He could ruin you and us. You don't know him or anything about him!"

"He already knew most of it. And, apparently, I know even less about Lex. He started poking around in my past first. Mr. Wayne came to see what he could find and prevent Lex from getting the information."

"Do you think you can trust him?"

"I don't know, Dad. I don't have much of a choice now."

"Well, I'd like to have a word or two with this guy. Did he say when or if he was coming back?"

"No. But I have a feeling our paths will cross again someday."


	8. Epilogue

"So we have an agreement?"

"I believe we do, Mr. Wayne."

"Does anyone else know about this?"

"Just my contact from the Insurance Institute. He was the one who did the calculations and created the simulation. I must say, I think you're running an awfully big risk. You've gone to great lengths to keep certain information from Lex Luthor, and yet you're sending me to Smallville with the truth. This could be very costly for you if Luthor calls your bluff."

"If I know Lex, he'll never believe he hit that kid. He just won't accept it. Now, let's get something straight here, Nixon. I am in control of this situation. From this point forward, I own you. You will speak when spoken to. You will give Luthor only the information I deem necessary. You are to have zero contact with Clark Kent, his family, or his friends. If you do these things perhaps I can convince Perry White to give you a position at the Daily Planet. If you do not do everything I ask of you, if you so much as think of doublecrossing me I will find out, and I swear to God Almighty I will break you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, sir."

"Good. Now get out of my sight."


End file.
